There is a simple formula that will help you to calculate the engagement rate. Let’s take Instagram as an example. 

Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments) / Followers x 100

So, how to understand whether your engagement on Instagram is good? There are industry standards by which you can check your results: 

• Less than 1% = low engagement rate 
• Between 1% and 3.5% = average/good engagement rate 
• Between 3.5% and 6% = high engagement rate 
• Above 6% = very high engagement rate 

Instagram

An engagement rate on Instagram between 1% and 3% is ok. It is the average result we can see on most profiles. If your engagement rate is higher than 3%, it means that your audience is very engaged and reacts a lot to your content. If it’s below 1%, people are not very interested in what you are trying to show them. 

Facebook

If we talk about Facebook, the reasonable engagement rate is 1-2% because Facebook’s filtering algorithm, EdgeRank, only shows your posts to about 16% of your total followers. With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see such a low engagement rate to be considered as good. 

LinkedIn

You can easily calculate your LinkedIn account engagement rate by dividing post interactions by your total number of followers or by the number of post impressions. A good LinkedIn engagement rate is around 2%. Yes, it may be similar to Facebook, but we need to remember that we calculate by post and not by time period.

Twitter

A good Twitter engagement rate is considered to be 0.02% to 0.09% for each Tweet. The average rate in 2020 was 0.045%, and the average number of tweets from a brand was 5-6 per week. 

To calculate your Twitter engagement rate, you need:

• Likes + comments + retweets
• /number of followers
• /total number of tweets

There are a lot of things that influence the engagement rate on social media. For example, the exact time of posting, posting frequency, the number of followers, hashtags, content quality, and platform algorithms. So when you are deciding how to improve your engagement, make sure you consider it all. It’s an important metric to consider and should not be ignored when gaining new followers and growing your business’s social media accounts.

The post What Is a Good Instagram Engagement Rate? appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Labor Day is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated on the first Monday of September. Traditionally, Labor Day in the United States is celebrated by most Americans as a symbolic end of summer and to pay respect to the achievements of American workers. On this day, Americans go camping, hosting their much-loved outdoor barbecues. Labor Day was first celebrated in New York State in 1882, and you can read more about its history here.

Now we’ll get to the more educational part, namely Labor Day social media posts ideas!

Idea #1. Celebrate the successes of your employees

First of all, the meaning of Labor Day is to celebrate the achievements of workers in all kinds of spheres. Show who’s behind your business! It would be a good idea to write about how you all worked this year and what you have planned next. Also, if you will be throwing a party for your employees, share a couple of photos from there. It will make you more human in the eyes of your audience.

Idea #2. Say hello to fall!

The second thing to keep in mind is the beginning of the fall. Many Labor Day social media posts are about that. It’s a good idea to post beautiful fall scenery around your office, fall still lifes with your products, or even a meme saying something like “Bye, summer! Hello, fall!” This will really diversify your followers’ feed and add bright colors to your profile.

Idea #3. Barbecues are always a good idea

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2hZf8h6Dg/

For many people, Labor Day is first and foremost a barbecue. Remind Instagram users of this glorious tradition. Post photos from last year’s barbecue on this day with your employees. It’s also a good move to ask your in-house designers to prepare beautiful grill-themed cards or animations. The Instagram audience loves such Labor Day social media posts!

Idea #4. Barbecues are STILL a good idea

This idea follows logically from the previous one. Offer your followers interesting or unusual barbecue recipes. This is an excellent idea if you have a restaurant business. If you are a food producer, you can offer some recipes using your products. And don’t forget that your audience can be very diverse. Don’t ignore the vegetarians and vegans among your followers — share a few recipes for them, too! This will give you an image of an inclusive brand. 

Idea #5. Don’t forget about football

Labor Day marks not only the arrival of fall. It also marks the beginning of a favorite fall pastime in the United States: football season. On this day, you can relate your publications to this theme. For example, you can hold a themed promo, post a cool animation with soccer players by your design department, or a funny GIF. If your company has football games between employees, it’s a great idea to post a photo or two from these events.

Idea #6. Be patriotic

Labor Day is a great source of pride in Americans. On this day, you can choose to be especially patriotic on social media. Don’t hesitate to actively use the American flag in your Labor Day social media posts. True patriots will appreciate your move!

Idea #7. Quote someone famous

Famous people quotes are one of those types of content that users like a lot on Instagram. Post a themed picture with a quote about labor. Many famous people have said a lot of interesting things on this subject. And finding their inspirational quotes won’t be difficult. Here are our top favorite quotes:

• “No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
• “God sells us all things at the price of labor.” — Leonardo da Vinci
• “Without labor, nothing prospers.” — Sophocles

Idea #8. Dedicate your post to an important topic

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/COnXIWIhmPk/

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that we are surrounded by real heroes — doctors, couriers, volunteers, and others. Their work over the past two years has been challenging. So Labor Day social media posts are a wonderful opportunity to thank them once again for their hard job and remind your followers how important it is to work together to defeat the pandemic.

Idea #9. Happy long weekend!

Labor Day is also a day off in the United States. In your post, you can wish your subscribers a happy long weekend. If your business has something to do with leisure or recreation (e.g., hotels, cafés, amusement parks, etc.), invite your audience to visit you. Your followers will especially love it if you offer a good holiday discount!

Idea #10. Suggest alternatives

Clearly, not everyone celebrates this day by barbecuing. And not even all of your subscribers will have the day off. So you can always devote your Labor Day social media posts to alternative ways to celebrate the day in an unusual way or what you can do after work. Instagram users love the variety!

Well, that was our top 10 ideas for Labor Day social media posts. We hope they help you diversify your Instagram feed! Good luck!

FAQ

Is Labor Day a federal holiday?

Yes. It is also the third day of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend.

Does Labor Day change every year?

Yes. Labor Day is a federal holiday and falls on the first Monday of September every year.

The post Top 10 Social Media Posts Ideas for Labor Day appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Do you publish new posts on Instagram and develop them, but do you feel you’re getting too few likes? Then this article is for you because we’ve gathered the main ways to get more likes on Instagram!

Use Hashtags Wisely

Using hashtags is the first thought that comes to mind when you want to get more likes. The main thing is to remember how to use them correctly. Don’t use hashtags that are too popular and have no meaning. Avoid hashtags like #beauty, #nature. You will not get likes from real people with them. Better put a few less popular hashtags that will really convey what your post is about. That way, you can attract a new audience, get more real likes, and avoid the invasion of spam accounts on your page.

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Публикация от Urban Decay Cosmetics (@urbandecaycosmetics)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/urbandecaycosmetics/

Use Calls-to-Action

The golden rule of marketing: if you want to get action from your audience, ask them for it directly. Want to get more likes on Instagram? Add a call to like or a question to discuss in the comments at the end of your post descriptions. It will help a lot to support the development of your account.

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Публикация от NYX Professional Makeup (@nyxcosmetics)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/nyxcosmetics/

Want More Likes? Like It First!

If you want to get likes, like the posts yourself. Track mentions of your brand on Instagram through notifications or a branded hashtag and like and comment on those posts. People will love that you’re paying attention to them, and they’re more likely to like your future posts.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/forrestaguar/

Watch Your Followers’ Stories

Let me say right away that we are not talking about automatic viewing of stories with the help of special services. As with the likes and comments, watch your followers’ stories manually. These can be stories of new subscribers or ones with mentions of your brand.

It’s a very simple mechanic that works to increase audience loyalty. If people feel that a bot rather than a human watched their story, not only will it not produce results, but it can also play against you.

Don’t Forget to Show Your Location

Geotags are convenient for promotion in a specific territory. If your target audience is limited to a particular geographic area, geotags are the best tool for promotion. Not everyone specifies geotags under a publication, but in the search engine results, along with accounts and hashtags, geotags (if there are any for this query) are also shown. Your task is to arrange and use them correctly. Then your publications will be visible to a greater number of users, and therefore the number of likes will also increase.

The advantage of geotagging is that you are acting directly with your target audience. Today, this fact solves a lot and allows you to solve several problems simultaneously: to gain a mass of subscribers and to become popular.

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Публикация от Marketing Expert (@chalenejohnson)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/chalenejohnson/

Share Posts on Other Social Networks

If you’ve taken up promoting your business on social networks, Instagram is probably not the only platform you use. As soon as you publish a new post on Instagram, immediately share it on other social networks: Facebook, Twitter, etc. In other words, practice cross-posting.

The main rule — give people a reason to go to Instagram and not limit themselves to the likes on another social network. For example, post only part of the content and tell your followers that you can watch the rest on Instagram.

Promote Your Posts

Use targeted advertising. Official post promotion, set up through the Facebook ads or a simpler version on Instagram (available only to those who use a business profile), will help your followers see the post. This promotional tool will also positively affect the growth of the interested audience: they will see the promoted publication on their feed, even if they are not subscribed to your account. 

Diversify Your Content Plan

Use different types of posts, from photos and videos to carousels. The advantage of diversifying your content on Instagram is that you can track your performance to find successful patterns. For example, if you notice that your carousel format posts attract more attention and get likes faster, it’s worth focusing on those.

Ask your Followers to Share the Post

If you think the post might be interesting not only for your audience, ask them to forward it to their friends or tag them in the comments. Do this only if you are absolutely sure that your post will not irritate the people to whom it is shown. Otherwise, you risk not only wasting your time but also catching a wave of negativity in the comments.

This is a fairly common mechanic for Instagram contests, but it can also be used for the most common posts.

Tag All Users Related to the Post

It doesn’t matter at all who you are tagging. Your goal is to emphasize that they are somehow involved in this publication, you value that contribution, and you want to share it with your followers.

In doing so, there’s a good chance that their audience will also appreciate the mention and like your post or even become your subscribers.

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Публикация от Fendi (@fendi)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/fendi/

Speak to Your Followers in the Comments

Don’t hesitate to respond to comments from followers under your posts, especially if you’re asked a question. The more you engage in communication, the greater your audience’s loyalty, and with it, the greater the number of likes.

Write Engaging Descriptions

A banal but very useful tip — write long, interesting, and informative descriptions for your Instagram posts. Some might say that Instagram is a visual social network, and long text in your posts is inappropriate. That’s not entirely true. Precisely because of Instagram’s emphasis on visuals, it’s hard to surprise audiences with just high-quality images.

Write an engaging summary that complements the visual, talk about your experience, ask the audience a question, and increase the chance that a person will like it.

Post Beautiful Photos

One more piece of advice that many people will consider trivial, yet here it is. Instagram is a place for visual content. So to gain likes, you need to work on the attractiveness of your content. Make sure you have a good camera, shoot diverse and beautiful content, and don’t be afraid to use filters. Remember that a specific style of your photos forms your uniqueness to Instagram users. There, they will unmistakably distinguish your content from the images of other users in the immense social media feed.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/ikeausa/

Use Stories Highlights to Store Old Posts

Stories Highlights are one of Instagram’s very effective marketing tools. You can save stories that you want to keep for your users longer than 24 hours. You can also separate them into different categories by topic, so your audience can find the information they need more easily. This is a very convenient way to give users the answers they need without wasting their time communicating directly with you. In addition, this way, you draw attention to your previous posts and collect more likes on them. Make highlights with FAQs, a selection of your products in a specific category, or posts on a particular topic. By doing so, you can get more likes and not just on new publications.

The post 14 Ways to Get More Likes on Your Instagram Posts appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

With that in mind, we thought it would be very useful to tell you exactly how to make a beautiful carousel post and show a few ways to use it. Well, let’s get started!

How to publish a carousel?

Let’s look at how to publish multiple photos/videos in one post from a mobile device.

In general, publishing a carousel is almost no different from publishing a regular Instagram post. Click on the “+” at the bottom of the screen. Then tap on the multi-square icon. Select the photos or videos you want — you can post a maximum of 10 photos or videos. Pay attention to the sequence of images. The picture under the number “1” will be displayed first. You can only change the order of the pictures before publishing by touching the picture and dragging it to the right or left. Click “Next.” From there, everything happens in the same way as in the case of conventional posts.

Source: https://www.theverge.com

It is important not to forget about the size requirements for photos and videos. Just like regular posts, you can use portrait, landscape, and square formats when publishing your carousel. But you can only use one format per post. 

Photo requirements:

Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px

Landscape: 1080 x 566 px

Square: 1080 x 1080 px

Aspect ratio: square (1:1), landscape (1.91:1), vertical (4:5)

Recommended image size: Width — 1080 px, height — 566-1350 px (depending on the format)

Video requirements:

Length: 3-60 sec

Recommended formats: .MP4 and .MOV

Aspect ratios: square (1:1), landscape (1.91:1), vertical (4:5)

Maximum video size: 4GB

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Публикация от ASOS (@asos)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/asos/

Now that we know how to publish a carousel on Instagram, let’s look at a few examples of how you can use this format to improve your social media presence.

New product promo

The most obvious and easy way to use the carousel format is to present your new product. You can show it in detail from all sides and even attach a video. And if you have a new product line out, the carousel will fit perfectly into your feed.

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Публикация от vans (@vans)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/vans/

Make your posts alive with videos

Video is an easy way to enliven your post and feed in a carousel format and make it more human. What’s more, users love this kind of content and are happy to share it, which positively affects your brand awareness.

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Публикация от Queer Eye (@queereye)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/queereye/

Tell a story

Instagram users love quality storytelling. And it doesn’t matter if the stories are fictional or real, photographed or drawn. You can accompany them with a text description or do nothing more than a visual component — the choice is yours. The main thing is that the story should be interesting!

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Публикация от Pixar (@pixar)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/pixar/

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Публикация от The Washington Post (@washingtonpost)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/

Before/After

Carousel is a great way to show the results of a makeup artist, stylist, interior designer, and more. No more wasting time and effort creating collages. Just publish your content in a before/after format.

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Публикация от The Academy (@theacademy)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/theacademy/

Use the carousel to convey an important message

Instagram posts are an excellent way to communicate socially important commentary to a broader audience. And the carousel does it even better. You can accompany your post with a few photos, or you can include part of the text in a picture (this is also good if your post is too long, by the way). The more photos, the more compelling the message!

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Публикация от Nestlé (@nestle)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/nestle/

Behind-the-scenes

Another good way to make your brand more human is to show behind-the-scenes processes in your company. This can be office photos, production videos, or even the classic “behind-the-scenes” during a corporate photoshoot. Learn from the movie industry!

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Публикация от Marvel Entertainment (@marvel)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/marvel/

User-generated content

Remember the golden rule of social media: some content doesn’t have to be made directly by you. Encourage users to share photos of your products or what they’ve been able to do with them. You can even reward the most active users with a promo code or discount. This format is also good for summing up social media contests. All in all, there are plenty of options! 

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от Marvel Entertainment (@marvel)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/marvel/

Make creative posts

Carousel on Instagram is a space for creativity. You can make beautiful merges to make the transition between photos smoother, more unusual, and unique. Users love this kind of thing, and your audience is sure to be fascinated when they see your post in their feed.

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от vans (@vans)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/vans/ 

Use the carousel for a more accessible message

The carousel format is also good in terms of data delivery. For example, if you want to make an informative post and add some statistics or charts, it would be easy to do with this format. Design it nicely with your brand identity, and the post is sure to get a lot of likes.

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от Refinery29 (@refinery29)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/refinery29/ 

The bottom line

The carousel format in Instagram is always a win-win if you want to make a beautiful, impressive, and informative post. Choose a few suggested options or use all of them, and you’re sure to succeed on this social network. The main thing is to use them wisely and don’t post carousels all the time — let users take a little break and enjoy just a pretty picture. If you, like us, are inspired by the idea of using a carousel, be sure to incorporate it into your Instagram marketing strategy. Here we’ve covered in detail how to develop it. Go for it! 

The post How To Create Beautiful Instagram Carousel Posts With Examples appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Targeted ads and smart algorithms from Facebook have allowed Instagram to attract a huge number of people who sell products or develop their personal brand on the platform. Today, any novice blogger is wondering – how to grow my subscriber base? The number of followers directly affects the success of the profile and the number of sales. And while it seems like there is a lot of automated and free apps to grow your audience, the reality is a little more complicated.

It’s Not All as Easy as It Sounds

A couple of years ago, this article would’ve been packed with links to various bots, paid and free programs aimed to build up your audience synthetically. Today, this is the past. Yes, you can still find such services, and you may even increase the number of your followers. But will it directly affect your sales? The answer is “NO” since such programs usually wind up followers without any reference to the specifics of your services, the geography of users, as well as their quality. Simply put, you will get bots and people who aren’t interested in your products or services.

As elsewhere, in order to get a high-quality result, you need to work well and approach the process wisely. The following 6 tips are the basis for any strategy to grow your Instagram audience. All of the tips below are versatile and work regardless of the specifics of your business.

1. Post Intelligently
2. Be Proactive in Discussions
3. Pay Attention to Your Instagram Bio
4. Talk About Instagram Outside of Instagram
5. Stay Tuned for Updates on the Platform
6. Study Analytical Data

First Things First

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said – “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” We fully share the attitude of the legendary French.

As we said above, followers alone won’t make your Instagram account better. To reach a whole new level, you need a marketing strategy. Study your target audience, its geography, age, preferences, purchasing power. Ask yourself: why do I need to attract new followers? Someone does it for the sake of branding; someone needs additional traffic to the site, while the others hope to increase the number of sales on Instagram.

When developing a marketing promotion strategy, you will be faced with creating a content plan that is an absolute must for Instagram promotion. At this stage, you can start thinking about attracting new followers through a well-thought-out content plan. As you can see, getting new followers is approximately at the 3rd-grade procedure of a much larger process of Instagram promotion.

1. Post Intelligently

While it sounds obvious, the process has its pitfalls. You need to post content on the platform following the basic rules:

• Observe the regularity of posting. New content should constantly appear and according to the developed posting schedule. One of the tools for automation and deferred content posting, such as Hootsuite, is your assistant. You need to call a sense of anticipation for the next post from your audience. Besides, regular posting will give a new follower an understanding that the account is active. However, do not get carried away and make the posting schedule too strict. Your account is not a railroad directory. Don’t forget about the best time of posting based on your target audience’s preferences.
• Be creative with captions. The caption is the first thing your visitor will see, so it should be original, informative, have a CTA and inspire him to read the entire post. Use questions, humor, riddles, and try to make your captions as interactive as possible.
• Use correct hashtags. It is worth monitoring popular hashtags in your niche and among your target audience to use them at their peak response. Avoid hashtags like #f4f, as it looks spammy and won’t bring you any tangible benefit.
• Don’t be afraid to play around with different types of content. Although the basic post will still be “picture + text” content, you shouldn’t dwell on it. Instagram has long expanded its boundaries, and now you can create long stories, post videos, and IGTV. In the era of video content, it is good to invest in creating just such compelling videos.

2. Be Proactive in Discussions

In the matter of attracting new followers, your personal activity takes a huge place. We aren’t talking about drowsy posting in anticipation of a miracle, but about constant participation in discussions, both under your publications and under the posts of other people & influencers.

According to statistics, more than 21% of customers admitted that they subscribed to the social pages of their favorite brands just for interaction with the brand. At the same time, more than 74% said that by subscribing to a brand on a social network, they expected some sort of customer support activities.

Thus, answers to subscribers’ queries and constant participation in discussions give the right signal to Instagram algorithms and the living who can make sure that this brand pays attention to its followers.

Posting comments from a brand’s account on influencers’ pages also increases the visibility of your brand. But do not get carried away and spam openly.

3. Pay Attention to Your Instagram Bio

Just a couple of lines of text next to the avatar. Is that so important? Of course, it is because your bio is, in fact, the first thing that a potential new follower will see. Do your best to ensure that even this small detail works to attract new subscribers.

An attractive bio consists of several parameters:

• Beautiful photo. It should reflect your brand, be not too big, but not too small, attract attention but not concentrate it on one spot. It sounds difficult, but we’re sure your brand logo is exactly like that.
• Competent CTA. It can be anything, but “text+link” is a good formula. It can be, say, a link on a landing page on your website.
• Keep the human feel. No, there is no need to add errors specifically. But you can write the following sentence with a lowercase letter. You can write using slang. Visitors to the page should understand that a living person is waiting for them here, not the SMM mechanism.

4. Talk About Instagram Outside of Instagram

This question is a matter of cross-promotion. It is important always to remember to transfer traffic and subscribers base from one source to another. Instagram promotion is no different.

You can only take your first steps here but have an extensive base of email contacts, good web traffic, or a subscriber base on another social platform. Your task is to remind them constantly that you have a pretty awesome Instagram page with unique content.

Of the most famous practices, adding an Instagram icon to the home page of the site, posting links to the acc on other social platforms, and so on. As for email marketing, there are successful cases of attracting people from there to Instagram. Do not be afraid to carry out such a flow, since if the person has already subscribed to you somewhere, then there is a high probability that he will follow you on Instagram too.

5. Stay Tuned for Updates on the Platform

Like any other popular social network, Instagram doesn’t stand still and is constantly evolving. Once upon a time, stories were just an attempt to compete with Snapchat, and no one took them seriously. This is perhaps the app’s main feature, which allows brands to remind subscribers of their presence constantly.

The same can be said about innovations like IGTV or Instagram Reels. It is difficult to predict the impact of what importance they will have on the platform, but it is safe to say that this impact will definitely be. Therefore, any Instagram marketer is simply obliged to follow the official Instagram blog in order to stay tuned and ready for new features.

6. Study Analytical Data

Don’t experiment in trying to guess what your audience is thinking, how your content works, and what metrics your page has. All this data can be conveniently gleaned with the help of Instagram analytics, which we strongly advise you to study on a daily basis.

Ultimately, no strategy will work constantly; adjustment is always needed.

In the end, we would like to advise you to be patient. Building an Instagram follower base isn’t a one-day business, especially if you don’t have large advertising budgets and are starting from scratch. However, this isn’t something far-fetched – on the web, you can find many stories of how bloggers turned their Instagram profile into a platform for generating revenue or how the business started as an account selling colorful charging cables. Don’t despair if the first days don’t bring tangible growth – this is a long game. The main thing to remember is that by choosing the right promotion strategy based on the tips listed above and constantly adjusting it, you will ultimately create a solid foundation for successful growth on Instagram.

The post 6 Ways How to Get Instagram Followers for Business appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

If you’re still here, let’s dive a little deeper and get into the details.

Recent findings confirm that third-party apps have no effect on a post’s performance, so high-quality and engaging content will perform well on social media anyway. No matter if it’s posted via an app or natively through a platform. Using social media management tools will not harm your organic reach on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social network.

Yes, it won’t improve your reach either because it’s the same as posting natively.

The key thing here is the time you save by working with several or dozens of customer accounts at once. Planning your content in advance can help your channels to be more consistent and allow you to be more strategic. Moreover, creating and scheduling your social media content in advance can lead to better quality content and improve your stats by finding the perfect time for publishing.

While using such tools as social media scheduling doesn’t mean that you don’t need to respond to comments, engage in conversations consistently, and generally nurture your following. Being reactive and implementing social media automation may sound opposite, but they both work in a very complimentary way.

So, should you be worried about third-party social media management tools hurting your stats? This myth was probably born on Facebook, on far 2011, when the platform really was limiting the reach of posts from third-party social media management tools. Many brands noticed that they got lower reach and engagement numbers because of this. But since late 2011, Facebook fixed this issue, and their algorithms started to treat posts published via third-party social media management tools the same as native posts.

Yet, the myth still lives.

By now, multiple independent sources have run a variety of social media experiments that destroy it. And now it’s safe to say that if there were a noticeable difference in reach, someone would have noticed it by now.

Brian Peters at Buffer recently did an in-depth experiment to determine whether using a social media marketing tool hurts organic reach. He compared the reach and impressions of posts published from three third-party social media tools to posts published natively. The test included over 200 posts from 35 different profiles and took place over a three-weeks.

Here are the results:

• Facebook reach
  • Average native posts – 8820
  • Average third-party posts – 9071
• Twitter impressions
  • Average native posts – 21671
  • Average third-party posts – 21108
• LinkedIn reach
  • Average native posts – 6071
  • Average third-party posts – 7024

In some tests, posts made via third-party tools had a higher reach than native posts, and in some tests, they had lower. But the fact of the matter is that none of the results in these tests were statistically significant. So, it is obvious that Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are not penalizing anyone for posting from third-party SMM platforms.

Useful Tips

• Don’t write for robots

Sure, you can schedule your content, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but you still want your content to be interesting, useful, and relevant. So, remember that there are people on the other side, not just Google or other search engine algorithms. Post about different topics and make your content vary. Also, try not to post every hour or\and schedule your publishing exactly on the hour. And the main thing here – stay online when posting something that prompting a conversation with your audience. It’s great to post text with questions or topics to discuss, but you also need to engage with the process.

• Keep your hand on a pulse

Scheduling your content comes with a whole range of benefits. But you still need to keep your topics up to date and relevant. So, monitor interesting and fresh topics, search for new trends and get involved wherever you can. Creating content on some hot topics will make your posts more popular, engaging, and valuable to your audience. Also, you can try to predict something that can become trending and schedule your content in advance. For example, some major holidays or events. You can find it in our social media calendar and even use our library with a lot of templates for every occasion.

• Check your statistics

If you want to keep your brand successful and growing, you need to constantly check your content performance and use this information for future edits and improvements. For example, find which posts got the most likes, comments, and shares and find out why to make more of such posts in the future. Many analytical tools will be able to show you this kind of analytical information, allowing you to get the ready-to-use results for your social media marketing experiments.

The post Why Do Social Media Scheduling Tools Not Affect Reach or Engagement appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

If you want your brand to stay on top of the game, be successful and competitive, it is important to know the best and worst times for posting in each social media platform your business is presented. There are more than 3.96 billion active social media users all over the world. Don’t underestimate the power of social networks as a tool to communicate with your target audience and making more customers, fans, and brand advocates.

We all know that the best times to post on social media are when your customers and followers are online. But each social media channel has a different time that works best for the audience. For example, the best time to post on Instagram is different than the best time to post on Facebook. Besides, when you start considering different time zones, it starts to get a bit complicated.

In this article, we will talk about the best time for posting on different social media platforms and share recommendations for social management tools. Using this data, you can improve your engagement rates, brand awareness, reach, generate more sales and traffic. It can be your starting point to find out which schedule works best for you and your company.

Contents

1. Common Rules
2. Time Zones Matter
3. Best time to post on Facebook
4. Best time to post on Instagram
5. Best time to post on LinkedIn
6. Best time to post on Twitter
7. Best time to post on Pinterest

The best time to post on social media needs to factor in the social platform you are using and the time zone most of your target audience are in. We will talk about average times, but you can check your statistics and check when your followers engage the most. The best way to find out your best posting time is to experiment with it. For example, you can use social media management tools to plan and schedule your posts at different times over several weeks or months to determine which times tend to work best with particularly your audience. With PromoRepublic you can easily create your social media calendar, create posts using our library, and schedule them with the help of AI.

Also, don’t forget to check your competitors. You can track their progress and see the exact time when their posts get the highest engagement rates. Similar tactics can probably work with your pages, so test them out too or post your content when they are generally quiet. Remember to check each platform separately for the best results because each of them lives by its own rules.

1. Common Rules

• Posting Consistency Is More Important Than Posting Frequency

Aim for consistency when posting on social media, create a plan and stick to it. For example, if you think that your social media post frequency should be two posts a day on Facebook, you know you need content to fill that schedule. And your followers will know that they can expect two fresh posts every 24 hours if they visit your page. If you want to attract new people, you need to have something valuable for them to digest.

• Content Quality Is More Important Than Content Quantity

Not posting anything at all is often way better than posting low-quality and not relevant content. Don’t try to post something just to fill a slot in your schedule. This is how brand loses their fans and followers. This works exceptionally well in times of coronacrisis, where you need to focus on making your content as useful or engaging as possible, providing facts or sweet distraction. If you want to create relevant social media content, you need to focus on the principles of helpfulness, authenticity, and quality so that the posts will make sense to people engaging with them. Pandemic influenced time when people go online, so brands need to consider if there are still lockdown measures in countries where their target audience is.

• You Can Only Understand if Your Posts Are Successful if You Have a Clear Objective for Social Media

That rule is pretty obvious. Especially if you’re an agency, you surely want to confirm your plan with your clients before publishing content on their behalf. Because if you don’t know why and what you are posting, you can’t understand if your goal is achieved, whether to get more brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or sell a particular amount of your product or service.

• Tailor Your Content to Suit Each Network

Don’t just copy and paste your Facebook or LinkedIn posts to Instagram or Twitter. That won’t work. Instead, think of which types of content are best suited to each social media network and start from there. For example, if videos get higher engagement on Facebook than images, then use it. Change up the copy, hashtags, and emojis for each post. Tailoring will take a little longer, but you want people to see only high-quality content.

• Engage With Your Audience

Posting content is a monolog, but social media is all about talking and being reactive. You will need to be available to join in the discussion when people respond to your posts. The quicker you can react to posts and comments, the more active and human your brand will seem, and the more your community will grow.

2. Time Zones Matter

Some brands and influencers send out the same message at different times to hit all the time zones they are working with. The thing is, the more popular your business is, the more time zones you’ll likely need to take into account. If you want to reach most of the time zones without overdoing it, it is a good idea to send no more than four same messages in one day with a different scheduled time. By doing this, you can reach as many countries as possible.

For example, if your target audience is located in the United States and\or Canada, you need to aim at the EST time zone. It has the highest number of people, thanks to Toronto and New York. If your followers live in London, you want to post within the GMT time zone. Try to use analytic tools to find out where your customers are located. It can be built-in tools of the social media platforms themselves or external applications.

3. Best time to Post on Facebook

Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world, so its 24\7 engagement is not a surprise. There were only several completely “off” times for Facebook in the past year, and the most successful periods are early mornings, late nights, and weekends.

These were the times when the content got the most engagement, and brands had an opportunity to attract the most eyes to their posts. Keep in mind that a large part of any engagement statistics is based on US Central Time, so it shows engagement in traditional US workday. That’s why it reflects Facebook’s significant global audience, and that is the reason why Facebook is great for brands running an international or multi-location strategy.

It could be almost an overwhelming amount of content to plan, but keeping these peak times for when to post on Facebook in mind can help you make the most out of your content calendar.

4. Best time to Post on Instagram

Past year Instagram continued to create new things like Reels, new Stories features, and some Explore page updates. So it was a perfect platform to communicate with your audience during the lockdown measures and after it. Show some top-quality visuals, start a dialogue by asking people questions in posts or stories, or just educate followers writing about brand and industry in posts. The crucial part of getting maximum engagement was social listening, when you know exactly what people want to see because they are constantly talking about it on the platform.

Also, because of coronacrisis, midday engagement became a thing. People could stay at home and scroll through the feed almost anytime. Peaking times were about 11 AM and 2 PM. Evening and weekend also got higher and opened even more opportunities for brands to get engagement.

Instagram is an excellent platform for businesses to branch out with their content. You can improve your visual identity with high-quality photos or highlight your brand’s graphic mastery by showing what infographics and data reports you’ve created for content. All previous year people wanted to stay connected, so Instagram Live also became a more popular format of communication which was used a lot.

5. Best time to Post on LinkedIn

As a professional-focused social media platform, LinkedIn has become highly engaging. Content here gets more views, likes, shares, and comments during the working days more than on weekends when engagement drops more significantly compared to the other social networks. Taking into account how much LinkedIn content is centered around professional thought leadership and career growth, it makes sense that a vast majority of users are getting the most out of it during their working day.

As we know, LinkedIn continues to be more specialized in target for employee advocacy campaigns and recruiting. It is also becoming equally important for a wide range of content creation for B2B, and any brand can utilize LinkedIn marketing best practices and highlight wins as a company and culture. It’s an ideal fit for employee advocacy and empowering people to advance their personal brand or professional development as they post content to their profiles.

6. Best time to Post on Twitter

In 2020, this forge of news and memes was the first place where people were trying to get any COVID or US Presidential Elections info. Short content format is perfect for news, so Twitter is always focused on information accuracy and trending topics all around the world. Want to discover all the newest things going on? That’s the right platform.

Through all the pandemic times in 2020, this platform remained high in engagement rates all weekdays with even more activity in the evenings. The reason is news and updates about things that were going on and also viral Tweets and memes. Except up-to-the-minute news people can get here, they can easily reach brands through fast communication and mentions in posts or replies. So, if your business is ready to react fast, to start a dialogue at any time, and to deliver high-quality costumes service, this social media platform is a perfect place.

7. Best time to Post on Pinterest

If your brand’s target audience is mothers, then it’s the best place for your content. They form a big group of Pinterest users engaging with tons of content every day. That’s why the best time to post it is mostly later in the week and the evenings.

We hope that this post will help you get more engagement on your posts on listed social media platforms. Don’t forget that constant monitoring your accounts, analyzing statistics, and active social listening will help you improve communication between your brand and your target audience. We shared some common rules, but only you know how to do it best in your industry and with your followers. And even if you find your perfect schedule, remember that a growing audience can change their tastes, and media platforms can implement new algorithms. Stay on top of these changes and never stop your experiments. Try different schemes, use different tools, and post different content.

With PromoRepublic, you can create and schedule your posts in advance, test different communication schemes, and provide experiments to get more engagement. Don’t be afraid to change, and your brand will grow.

The post Best Time to Post on Social Media appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Continue reading to find out why and how!

In just over a decade, Instagram has evolved from a photo-sharing app to a center of commercial activity. Every month, more than one billion individuals use Instagram, and about 90% of them follow at least one brand/company. In addition, the number of businesses utilizing Instagram for promotions is expected to exceed a million by 2021.

Instagram, in fact, is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms because it allows anyone, including companies, to market themselves via a visual story. Here people can record the beauty they see around them on a daily basis. So, if you can develop a beautiful way to present that specific goods or service, you’re likely to do well on Instagram.

Generally, Instagram generates two types of visual content: video and photo. Surely, video content goes viral easily and gets more engagement. Thus, it has its special place in a marketer’s toolbox. Thanks to Instagram, Video marketing is no longer limited to large corporations as Instagram Stories, IGTV, Instagram Live, and other features have made it extremely accessible to small companies. Let’s bring it up in detail.

Table of Contents

1. Instagram Videos as a Marketing tool
2. How to boost your Instagram by sharing videos
3. Different types of Instagram videos
4. Must-have marketing tools
5. FAQ

Instagram Videos as a Marketing Tool

Have you ever wondered why videos are deemed viral content? Sure. Because they have the potential to express more emotions than a single image. And for today’s standards of striving to make life easier and full of memories, it is way the best option. Simply put, today’s users like to view everything in one location while getting something from the content. That is why businesses are adding video into their content strategy, resulting in enormous viewership. You scroll down your feed or watch Instagram Stories and catch sight of something adorable. Some hours later you are near that shop or just meet the delivery. Hmm… Marketing works, don’t you think so?

Whether it’s a picture or a video, maintaining it aesthetically appealing (geometry, colors, matching) will drive your company to success. 

This visual social network has over a billion active members, and 72 percent of them have purchased items after discovering them on Instagram. Previously seen as an opportunity made by many marketers, Instagram is now considered a must-have for organizations rather than a nice-to-have. That is the very reason Instagram has the world’s most well-known companies under its roof.   

Still, wondering what Instagram can give you in terms of Marketing? Here we go. With the help of a well-developed marketing strategy and a creative mind, you will

• Find your target audience and increase your odds
• Showcase your products and services
• Raise brand awareness
• Build a community
• Share news & current promotions
• Go viral 

How To Easily Boost Your Instagram & Beat Your Competition By Sharing Videos

Compared to picture posts, even a brief video may attract more users and bring lead flows. They’re also intriguing and unforgettable. Whatever video marketing format you select, here are five suggestions to help you get the most out of it.

Keep it Short

The daily dose of being exhausted is quite enough for people. No one is eager to watch long and dull video content while having a rest or just trying to kill the boredom. That’s why make sure your video material is brief and to the point. Don’t try to fill up the video with extraneous introductions. Try to convey your point in as little time as possible. Create a picture and video collage as well for your Instagram, because… Why not?

Choose Right Dimensions

Unlike other social media platforms, in-feed videos on Instagram cannot be expanded to fill the entire phone screen; therefore, your posted video must be eye-catching. However, with Stories, the video will span the whole screen but should be planned and shot vertically.

Never Ignore The Captions

Just because you’re making an ideal video doesn’t mean you should ignore the description. Moreover, you must devote sufficient time to creating a clever or convincing caption. You must also conduct extensive research to identify relevant hashtags that are more likely to help your article go viral. 

Produce a Wide Range of Videos

Users may share feed videos, reels, stories, and IGTV videos on Instagram. Use all of these to reach the greatest number of individuals. To increase user engagement, you may include short videos with stickers, polls, and questions. Furthermore, you can create a story on Instagram and share daily content. These are only available for 24 hours; however, you may recover them and add them to highlights. If you are producing a product, add tutorials. If you are offering a service, show the process. The transparent and honest you are to your audience, the more engagement you will get. 

Tag Your Products in Sales Videos

Unfortunately, sharing links is not available on Instagram. However, if you operate an e-commerce store, there is an alternate approach you may utilize. This is used to tag products in your videos.

When you tag items in videos, a shopping cart icon appears on the screen to indicate that the goods have been tagged. People may click on this symbol to view all of the goods that have been tagged with it and then go straight to the product pages from the post.

What To Include In Your Videos Besides Business Related Stuff?

Storytelling

Instagram has positioned itself as a visual inspiration platform because visual storytelling is the most effective method to encourage people. The greatest brand storytelling on Instagram entails sharing bite-sized micro-stories that relate to the business’s values, goals, and purpose. 

Entertainment

Shoot something fun if you want to make your Instagram followers chuckle. If they enjoy it, they’ll be far more likely to interact with it and leave a remark, which will help you rank higher in Instagram’s algorithm. The great thing is that fun Instagram videos are an excellent way to show off your brand’s individuality.

Inspiration

What we lack the most is motivation. Why not share our stories and inspire others? These types of Instagram videos are a great way to show off your brand’s values and let your followers know what you’re passionate about, and they should be well-received by your target demographic.

Education

Keep it easy and educational at the same time. Make a series of short videos based on facts and information. Find ways to make learning enjoyable and engaging. You might, for example, utilize certain English grammatical rules and create a 15-second film to explain them as simply as possible.

Show The Process

It’s always fascinating to learn what happens in real life. So, why not show your followers the process and fun moments. This is a fantastic method to strengthen your consumer interactions while also establishing brand trust. 

Different Types Of Instagram Videos

The Instagram video comes in five formats: Reels, live, IGTV, stories, and in-feed video postings. The platform’s video boom is difficult to manage, but it has also offered new methods for advertisers to convey stories and engage audiences. Let’s now check them. 

Instagram in-Feed Videos

Feed videos are Instagram’s first and most important video format. They are uploaded in the same way as photographs are: either using the app’s built-in camera or by uploading a photo from the library. You may apply whatever filters, descriptions, location, and tags you want on the products, just as you do on photographs. 

In Feed postings, Instagram allows a variety of video dimensions. However, you must consider Instagram’s user experience. Instagram doesn’t rotate the feed video, so it appears like a small square. Pay attention to this fact while making a video. Most professional video editors will allow you to upload video and edit it utilizing these criteria. Note that IGTV or Instagram Live videos, when seen in the Instagram feed, they’re cropped to 4:5 – the portrait option shown above.

Instagram Reels and IGTV

Instagram’s IGTV app is intended to encourage you to seek out intriguing videos rather than simply watching them. Some have criticized the program for being too similar to YouTube’s “recommendations” system. Instagram’s primary emphasis is on virality and content from accounts to which you have NOT subscribed. However, the firm claims that it aspires to be more like Facebook and Twitter. If the main feed in all social networks has always been your subscribers’ feed, the algorithmic feed of suggestions is now at the forefront. It shows videos that the system determined to be of interest to you, as well as videos from those to whom you have subscribed. In fact, IGTV’s virality comes from the accounts you are not following. 

Lately, Instagram has added a Reels feature to the app. The Reels symbol shows in the Instagram mobile app when the camera is activated, among the options for shooting stories or live broadcasts, for all users who have access to the new feature. It allows users to shoot a video of no more than 15 seconds, add music from the licensed Facebook library, record their own sound, add visual effects, choose a video cover, speed up, or slow down. The feature is particularly popular among Generation Z. Instagram Reels were first introduced in late 2019 in Brazil and are now accessible in over 50 additional countries. 

Instagram Reels is a new method for businesses to show off their genuine and entertaining content. You may make genuine material, distribute instructive information, and promote your products. If you’re currently using Instagram for business, Instagram Reels could be worth a go. 

Instagram Live Videos

Instagram Live is a fantastic medium for gaining new followers, increasing interaction, and even selling items. Going live on Instagram is one of the most direct, open, and real ways to engage with your followers. Unlike pre-recorded Instagram Stories or IGTV videos, Instagram Live is a live broadcast that your followers can watch and interact with. This may be a very useful tool for strengthening the bond between your brand and potential clients.

In addition to the actual broadcast, your Instagram Live will be available for 24 hours on your Instagram Stories for your audience to catch up on. This exposes your broadcast to a much broader audience and can result in a significantly greater view count — especially if you continue to promote your Instagram Live across several social networks. Instagram Live is a really simple feature to use, but there are a few administrative tasks to complete before you begin video streaming. You may filter comments that contain particular words or phrases if you don’t want to see improper language in the comments on your Instagram Live. If you wish to broadcast live, you will need a powerful and steady internet connection.

How to Go Live on Instagram

Before Going Live

• Swipe through to the “Live” option on the Instagram Stories camera. You can see the number of your followers using the Instagram app at that moment. Thus you’ll have an approximate number of how many people will get an in-app notice if you go live right away.
• To begin your broadcast, tap the “Live” icon and make sure you have a strong and steady internet connection. Consider using a holding screen or making some small talk for a minute or two to allow your followers a chance to join before diving right into the meat of your live session.

During the live stream

• Once your live stream is up and running, you can add various features to make it more engaging: share questions, send DMs, co-host your followers, use Instagram filters, share media files, etc.
• To make a comment to the live broadcast, tap “Comment.” You may also press and hold a remark to pin it to the top of the stream.
• When your Live is over, press “End” in the upper right corner, followed by “End Now” to confirm.

After the live stream

• Post the broadcast recording to IGTV. Click “Publish Preview” to make the video preview appear in your feed and profile. You can also download videos to your device. After you’ve saved your stream, you may use it to create 15-second Instagram Stories, 1-minute Instagram feed video clips, or even a longer IGTV edit.

Now is the very moment to start using Instagram Live for business if you haven’t already.

Because just a tiny number of companies are going live, you have a lot of chances to catch the attention of your followers, develop brand recognition, and perhaps make some purchases!

Top 3 Must-Have Marketing Tools To Make Any Business Top-Notch in 2021

According to the latest research, more than 80% of Instagram users follow the brands they love and decide on buying a product influenced by Instagram. Wait a moment…Have you already created the ideal Instagram experience for your brand lovers, or are you just getting started? No worries. We’ve compiled a list of must-have Instagram marketing tools to assist you in growing your account, increasing your followers, and raising brand awareness.

#1 InVideo

InVideo provides versatile video editing solutions with somewhat high internet ratings and some excellent evaluations on user communities focusing on video editing tools. This application, which claims to allow you to make amazing films in less than 10 minutes, provides a broad selection of templates as well as simple editing choices. After creating an account, which is simple and free, you may choose between two distinct plans with varying subscription prices and perks. There is also a ‘creator’s club’ where you may engage with other video makers and broaden your network. The training material and thorough demo offered to allow anybody to concentrate on the continual growth of their films.

Used for: InVideo has a perfect editing solution for every sort of content producer wanting to make movies and posters.

Price: Business Plan: $20 per month/300 photos per month/ 60 HD video exports in a month Unlimited Plan: $60 per month/ Unlimited access to premium videos and pictures from Shutterstock and Storyblocks/ Unlimited HD video exports.

#2 PromoRepublic

And of course, PromoRepublic, which is a bundle of fundamental tools for social network marketing. PromoRepublic enables multi-location businesses, franchisors, agencies, freelancers, and small company owners to discover, produce, and manage content on social media from a single platform. By enrolling for the PromoRepublic service, you may instantly link several pages from various social networks. In order to see the appropriate themes of the templates, specify the proper industry in the options for each page. The most interesting and fun aspect of working with social networks is content selection. We move straight to the “Post Ideas” area. 

Used for creating social media calendars, as well as generating ideas and templates. That is your online SMM specialist. 

Price starts from $9 per month for Smart Posting, $49 per month for Social Monitoring. A free trial is available. 

#3 Canva

With Canva, users can make high-quality videos without necessarily having the skills of a professional video editor. Canva’s simple drag-and-drop tool, along with its library of pre-made templates, makes creating videos easier than ever.

Used for creating social media presentations, posters, graphics, documents, and any other visual content. They have an app as well.

Price of Canva Pro is $12.99 monthly. You can try it for free for 30 days. To activate your Canva Pro account, you’ll need to enter a credit card. You can cancel at any time during your trial, and you won’t be charged. There’s a monthly $30 Enterprise plan as well, you can empower your team, manage your brand, and scale your content all in one place.

FAQ

Can I post on Instagram from my PC?

Currently, Instagram does not enable us to publish images or videos to our accounts from your desktop or laptop, much to the chagrin of users worldwide. This is a deliberate attempt by Instagram to increase mobile app use and engagement with other users. However, there are a number of workarounds available, enabling you to schedule and post on PC. You can post on Instagram using HopperHQ. It’s way simpler than you think. If you are not into posting via HopperHQ, you can use Chrome or Safari user-agents. More about scheduling and posting you can find here. 

How can I share a video on Instagram from a post, video story, or IGTV?

Instagram allows video sharing in your stories or feed (reposting) from other accounts. You may also share Instagram video posts or IGTV videos outside of the app (through text, email, or another social network), but video stories cannot be shared unless it’s your own. If you want to, the video length must be at least one minute long.

How can I download Instagram feed videos?

Instagram doesn’t allow you to download videos from your feed or other users’ posts on Instagram. However, there are various solutions. Recording your screen while the video is playing is a simple method to store Instagram feed videos. A third-party app may also be used to save an Instagram video to your phone in order to repost and share with your users. 

What are the main requirements for an Instagram video (size, length, dimensions)?

Instagram supports MP4 and MOV formats of videos. Though the best one remains MP4 thatincludes these technical specifications:

• 3 500 kbps bitrate for video
• Frame rate of 30 fps (frames per second)
• Maximum file size of 15 mb
• Video must be a maximum of 60 seconds (up to 60 minutes for IGTV)
• Maximum video width is 1080 px (pixels) wide
• Your Instagram video should be 1080 pixels wide and 1920 pixels tall

Can I use music while uploading a video on Instagram?

If you’re publishing a video to Instagram Stories, you can utilize the in-app music library, but if you’re uploading a video to your feed, you’ll have to double-check where the music comes from so as not to have problems with copyright. Always give credits. 

The post A Complete Guide How to Use Instagram Video to Grow Your Business appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Contents:

• Optimize Your Account
• Experiment With Content
• Be Consistent
• Be Active
• Be Honest
• Make a Content Plan
• Use Scheduling
• Use Hashtags
• Use Analytics
• Use All Available Channels
• Publish Timely
• Work With Influencers

No matter what, even a large number of low-quality or fake subscribers will not bring anything good to your account at best. And at worst, it can cause additional problems like disabled paid ads, low click-through rates, zero engagement, etc. And here we go again to the main question: how do we get live and active subscribers? We’ve put together 12 simple tips to help you hit your first 10k milestone in this post. Let’s go through the list:

1. Optimize Your Account

First things first! Before you start creating and uploading tons of high-quality content for your loving audience, you need to fully optimize your account. Start with a bio and insert all the vital information, then link your company’s website or another page if you have one. Also, using tools like Linktree, you can create and insert a link that leads to a list of links you want to share. 

• Make it short.
• Make it simple.
• Make it clear. 

Don’t forget to pay attention to your profile picture and account’s username. Keep it search-friendly and make sure it flows the same as on other social media platforms.

People will find your brand easier, and be sure that this is your current page. This approach will help to form your brand’s identity too.

2. Experiment With Content

Don’t be scared to find your brand voice and change your content. Check out what topics are the most interesting for your followers and which ones bring the most activity: follows, likes, shares, saves and commenting.

Also, try to use different tones of voice and find what suits your brand the best based on the products or services you sell, the sphere you work in, and your target audience characteristics. If you don’t know where to start, don’t hesitate to look at brands you like and emulate their style. Once you’ve identified the content and voice that resonates with your viewers the most, start moving in this direction.

3. Be Consistent

Yep, too many experiments can be harmful too. Try to find the golden mean here, and don’t go “off-brand” too much, as this can lead to losing followers. A solid brand is a consistent brand, and while you are trying to crystalize your voice or find your perfect content, remember the roots of your company’s foundation in the first place. If you have a small group of old-time followers, they will be expecting something specific from you. Keep reminding them of the reason they started following your brand. So, once you find your niche, don’t deviate too far from it without a well-thought-out strategy. 

4. Be Active

Post a lot without long pauses and interact with other people and brands on Instagram. For example, you can leave comments under someone’s posts to show yourself or start a conversation. Or you can like some photos or even post them in your stories. 

The perfect way to show your target audience that you care about them is to post user-generated content on your brands’ page.

People who like brands or want to talk to them usually tag them in posts or stories. Sometimes it can be great pictures with your product or just some good feedback that you’re tagged in. By posting these on your page, you are killing two birds with one stone — you get high-quality content generated with zero effort and are showing loyalty to your brand advocates by improving brand perception. 

5. Be Honest

Try to avoid being “fake” on Instagram because people see it in a fraction of seconds. Everybody knows that social media life is a lie, so don’t try to be perfect. This content can push followers away as they can see right through it. Try to be authentic and real, promote your uniqueness and culture, so people can relate to your content and feel that you are one of them and not just another perfect faceless brand.

 6. Make a Content Plan

Ok, this one can be obvious, but still, if you don’t have a content plan scheduled a month ahead – make it. Don’t make followers wait until you come up with an idea on what to post and when it’s the perfect time to do it. Stick to your posting schedule and be consistent. Post at least once a day because 200 million people log on daily with a chance to see your content and interact with it and make you a little bit more famous and rich.

 7. Use Scheduling

As we mentioned in the point above, a good content plan is just half the task. Scheduling will help you find the perfect time to post, get more visibility, and increase engagement. 

With PromoRepublic, you not only rely on the power of AI to find perfect posting time but can create top-quality pictures with our templates gallery and schedule it to automate posting in advance. It will help to improve the overall quality of your content and maintain a consistent flow.

 8. Use Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the most tried-and-true ways to get followers on Instagram. 

It was an essential tool for brands and people to get followers from day one. So, if you want to build your community by gaining interested followers, then hashtags will provide you that. You can find many tools to find the most popular hashtags and the most relatable ones. Highlight your content with it and let people see your brand. But remember the rules:

• Too many hashtags are too many. 
• Dilute the most popular hashtags with less popular and niche ones.
• Don’t use hashtags that are not related to your post. 

Try to find hashtags that people in your target audience are more likely to check. It will help make a relevant connection, and these people will be more likely to follow your account. Also, try to use unique, branded hashtags to group your posts and highlight hyper-relevant content. Sometimes people follow hashtags, too, so you can even put the branded one into your bio.

 9. Use Analytics

Different analytical tools can help you understand what content performs better and why. 

This is the main reason why this is so important. You can find out that your filters, captions, topics, or even posting time affect the level of engagement. Also, keep your finger on the pulse of Instagram trends to post fresh and popular content because even high-quality pictures with perfect timing will not always perform best. To take your analysis a step further, your brand should invest in Instagram analytics tools. This will make it easier to track, benchmark, and analyze Instagram content. Try different tactics to check what works best for your audience. 

 10. Use All Available Channels

If you already have a good amount of followers on another social platform, make sure they know about your Instagram account.

Drive people from your website by putting a link to your Instagram in the contacts block too. What else can you do to promote your Instagram? You can embed images or links to your Instagram account into your newsletter and your blog posts. By doing this, you’ll be on your way to authentic Instagram growth. 

 11. Publish Timely

Keep an eye out for what is up-and-coming or trending and how you can use it on your page. 

Is there a new viral meme? Or maybe something important happened in the media? Try to personalize it and see how it can fit with your brand. Write an article on your blog with your own spin and promote it on your Instagram. Emphasizing current affairs and online trends can help get more eyeballs on your posts and make people communicate with the brand and with each other.

 12. Work With Influencers and Be Present

Find the most popular influencers in your area of expertise and follow them. Check out what they’re posting and what people are saying in the comments and join the conversation. 

These people are most likely in your target audience, and if you respond to something they say, you might just get new followers. The larger your follower count grows, the more buyers and interested customers you will have. So don’t just wait and post. Try to get in front of people’s eyes and be present. It’s critical to be present on your own Instagram as well as others. 

Instagram continues to grow in popularity as more and more people and brands create accounts for communication and commerce purposes. Using these tips will help you to find your target audience and make Instagram one of your business platforms. Don’t forget to try PromoRepublic services and watch your account grow organically and steadily.  

The post How to Get 10k Followers on Instagram Without Paid Fakes appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

If posted at the right time, they can multiply engagement and bring your account to the next social media level.

The only thing that prevents some users from becoming gods of Instagram is that they don’t know how to add multiple photos to one Instagram story. You don’t want to be among them, do you?

So follow me!

1. First, tap the camera icon in the corner of your Instagram Home tab to make a story.
2. Either take a picture to start with or select the photo library button, to begin with an image from your camera roll.

    

3. To add other front-camera pictures, click the Add Sticker button at the top of the screen and scroll down to the camera and camera roll icons.
4. Now you can take selfies with different border styles or add other pictures from your camera roll.
5. After that, you can edit your pics with multiple filters, add hashtags, locations, etc.

Get ready to receive reactions from your subscribers!

As you can see, uploading multiple photos and videos to their Instagram stories is not as difficult at all; it’s more about fun!

If you’re new to Instagram, though, read more on how to create Stories and use them for maximum engagement.

Make your story unforgettable!

The post How to Add Multiple Photos to One Instagram Story and Make Them Awesome appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.